Napoleon Series Discussion Forum

Yes, comes from the ancient Dutch word 'lantsate' (country + sitting). Its original meaning was 'Free inhabitant of a country without land ownership, an allottee'. So for 1794 you could just translate it as 'inhabitant of a country'.

Best regards, Geert

Thank you, Geert. I am out of sequence here!

Does 'without land ownership' signify being a 'tenant' or ' tenant farmer'. A landholder rather than a landowner. Might it be equivalant to the old English term 'yeoman.'

I am looking for some military or service aspect in the word to explain why the units being raised should have been described as 'korpslandzaten.'

Thinking further, following on from my last post to Oliver, I wonder if perhaps the key element in the term 'landzaat' was that the men recruited to these units were only intended to serve locally, in the home provinces where they were recruited. In other words, they were 'territorial units' to use a C20th term, not unlike the Fencibles and Yeomanry units in Britain, although those did serve away from their locality but only within the national borders.